A “Defend Europe” jacket from Génération Identitaire, a small right-wing group.

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ROMAIN LAFABREGUE / AFP

  • Génération Identitaire, a far-right group, was released by the Grenoble Court of Appeal.

  • They had organized an anti-migrant operation in 2018 in the Alps, on the Franco-Italian border.

The far-right group Génération Identitaire (GI) and three of its executives were released Wednesday by the Grenoble Court of Appeal, in the case of anti-migrant operations carried out in 2018 in the Alps, on the Franco-Italian border.

They were accused of having "exercised an activity under conditions creating confusion with a public function".

At first instance, Clément Gandelin (dit Galant), Romain Espino and Damien Lefèvre (dit Rieu) were sentenced in August 2019 to six months in prison by the Gap criminal court.

At an appeal hearing in October 2020, a suspended prison sentence was requested.

"Political propaganda"

In the spring of 2018, at the Col de l'Échelle near Briançon, Identity Generation activists dressed in blue down jackets resembling those of gendarmes had multiplied the demonstrations of hostility to migrants at the Franco-Italian border: night patrols and deployment of 'a highly publicized human channel under the “Defend Europe” banner.

In its release decision, which AFP was able to consult, the Court of Appeal considers that this human chain was an action "purely of political propaganda", "for media purposes" and "announced as such".

It was therefore not "such as to create confusion in the mind of the public with the exercise of the police force".

Night patrols

As for the night patrols, "whatever the look at such actions, they do not constitute reprehensible acts", argues the court.

It notes that "no member of the security forces questioned" during the investigation "indicated that these patrols had controlled, detained or prevented the migrants spotted from passing through".

The latter had been reported by Génération Identitaire to the border police (PAF) and sometimes accompanied to its premises.

"None of the migrants interviewed had indicated having confused these individuals with the police even though they were people in distress, weakened, with little or no command of French," added the court.

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  • Court of Appeal

  • Alps

  • Relaxed

  • Justice

  • Migrants

  • Identity generation